Gareth Evans Will Make his Hollywood Debut by Breaking the Bank

Gareth Evans, director of festival hits “Merantau” and more recently, “The Raid: Redemption” looks like he’s all set to make his Hollywood debut. The director has teamed up with Universal Pictures, with the studio acquiring the true story “Breaking the Bank” for the Welsh filmmaker to direct.

“Breaking the Bank” will be based on the true life story of a former UFC fighter name “Lightning” Lee Murray, a mixed martial arts brawler turned criminal mastermind who orchestrated the largest heist in history in England back in 2006. Yeah, tell me you’ve heard of that one before. The entire idea behind a UFC fighter becoming a criminal mastermind is so ridiculous, if you tried to pitch it to Hollywood, they’d probably laugh you out of town. But apparently it’s all true. Go figure.

Evans is currently at work on “The Raid: Berendal”, the second part in his “Raid” series, so it’s unlikely he’ll be making “Breaking the Bank” anytime soon. It’s curious though that Hollywood has given him what sounds like a drama/caper film to make his mark Stateside. Usually when studio suits bring over a foreign director, they are incredibly narrow minded and refuse to give him anything outside of what is considered his “genre”. And if you’ve seen Evans’ movies, you know that breaking faces and cracking bones is his genre.

In any case, Evans will eventually direct from a script by Kerry Williamson, who adapted the book “Heist: The True Story Of The World’s Biggest Cash Robbery” by Howard Sounes. Darren Aronofsky was apparently originally attached to direct, but opted for his “Noah” bible epic with Russell Crowe instead.